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Adrian Gonzalez

West News & Rumors: Padres, Hand, Rangers, Dodgers

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Reliever Brad Hand is the most sought-after trade chip the Padres have had since A.J. Preller took over as their general manager in 2014, reports AJ Cassavell of MLB.com. “Half the league or more” has called about Hand, a team source told Cassavell, which helps explain the Padres’ reportedly high asking price for the southpaw. San Diego feels as though it’s justified in seeking a significant return for Hand, per Cassavell, as the 27-year-old has been among the majors’ top relievers since breaking out last season and comes with affordable control through the 2019 campaign.

  • One of Hand’s teammates, second baseman/third baseman Yangervis Solarte, is also a trade candidate, but Dennis Lin of the San Diego Union-Tribune doesn’t expect the Padres to move him. Rumors connecting Solarte to other clubs have mostly been speculative, tweets Lin, who notes that the 30-year-old’s injury status seems to decrease the likelihood of a trade. He has been out for over a month with a strained oblique, and a return doesn’t look imminent as the July 31 trade deadline approaches. The switch-hitting Solarte hasn’t taken right-handed batting practice yet, which could change this weekend, and will still need to go on a rehab assignment after that happens.
  • Rangers GM Jon Daniels told reporters Saturday that he’s unsure whether the 46-50 club will buy over the next week-plus. If they do, though, Daniels indicated that the Rangers will seek controllable starting pitching, per Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News (on Twitter). Everyone wants controllable starting pitching, so that’s not surprising, but it’s clear Texas needs it more than a lot of other teams do. After all, three members of the Rangers’ rotation – Yu Darvish, Andrew Cashner and Tyson Ross – are scheduled to become free agents after the season.
  • A couple of injury updates on the Dodgers, courtesy of J.P. Hoornstra of the Southern California News Group (Twitter links): First baseman Adrian Gonzalez should return before Sept. 1, but outfielder Andre Ethier likely won’t. Back problems have been ruinous to both veterans this year – Gonzalez has been out since early June, and Ethier hasn’t played at all.

NL West Notes: A-Gon, Pollock, Nunez, Arroyo, Espinoza, Padres

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Adrian Gonzalez’s season and possibly even his long-term playing future have been threatened by his recurring back problems, but the Dodgers first baseman tells Dylan Hernandez of the L.A. Times that he intends to return to the field in September even if his back is still bothering him.  “Put it this way: Even if I’m not quote-unquote 100%, I’m still going to go in September because what I have is what I have,” Gonzalez said.  “If it doesn’t get better with all this time off, it’s not going to get better, so I might as well learn to play with medication.”  If he isn’t healthy enough for regular play, Gonzalez said he is happy to take a pinch-hitting role or to cede playing time to Cody Bellinger since “I’m just here to win. It’s not about, ‘It’s my position,’ or, ‘It’s his position.’ It’s about winning as a team.”  The piece is well worth a full read, as Gonzalez also discusses how his back problems have raised the question of retirement.

Here’s more from around the NL West…

  • Outfielder A.J. Pollock has officially returned to action for the Diamondbacks, with the club announcing that he has been activated from the 10-day DL after a lengthy absence owing to a groin strain. Arizona hasn’t encountered any real troubles in his absence, but the return promises to make for an even more compelling roster. The surprising D-Backs not only seem a shoe-in for a Wild Card spot, but currently sit just two-and-a-half games out of the NL West lead.
  • Eduardo Nunez didn’t play in a scheduled rehab game on Sunday due to continued discomfort in his ailing hamstring, and the Giants infielder may not return to action until after the All-Star break, Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle writes.  Nunez, who has been on the DL since June 24, is perhaps the Giants’ clearest trade chip as the club prepares to be deadline sellers.  If he can’t return until after the break, Nunez will have just over two weeks to keep up his solid pre-injury production and prove to interested trade suitors that he is healthy, or else the Giants will have trouble gaining full value in a deal.
  • Christian Arroyo suffered a fractured left hand after being hit by a pitch in minor league action on Saturday, and the Giants prospect is in danger of missing the rest of the season, MLB.com’s Chris Haft writes.  Manager Bruce Bochy said he was hoping Arroyo would be healthy in time to be a September call-up for the Giants.  Arroyo made his big league debut earlier this season and hit just .192/.244/.304 in 135 plate appearances, though San Francisco obviously wants to give one of its most highly-touted young players more experience in the Show.  Arroyo’s development has already been stalled by another hand injury in June; in fact, Arroyo’s first game back from that prior injury was Saturday’s contest.
  • Padres relievers Craig Stammen and Kirby Yates are under-the-radar candidates to be moved at the deadline, Dennis Lin of the San Diego Union-Tribune write as part of a reader mailbag.  Stammen has a 4.53 ERA in 45 2/3 IP, a number that is somewhat inflated by a few bad outings; 10 of Stammen’s 23 earned runs this year came during a three-game stretch in April, plus he allowed a grand slam in his last game.  Yates, meanwhile has an outstanding 2.08 ERA, 14.2 K/9 and 5.13 K/BB rate over 26 IP since being claimed off waivers from the Angels in April.  Neither pitcher is likely to net the Padres a big return in a trade, though as Lin notes, San Diego has little in the way of healthy trade chips aside from Brad Hand.
  • Also from Lin’s mailbag, he reports that star pitching prospect Anderson Espinoza is playing catch but hasn’t yet thrown off a mound.  Espinoza has yet to pitch at all this season after suffering forearm tightness in early April, and then additional soreness in May that led to a shutdown.  The Padres, as you might expect, are taking it slow with Espinoza’s recovery given his long-term value to the organization.  Lin notes that Espinoza might possibly not pitch at all this summer, as it will still be a while before the young righty is ready for game action.

West Notes: D-backs, Angels, Dodgers

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The fractured right hand shortstop Nick Ahmed suffered this week could force the Diamondbacks to address the position prior to the trade deadline, writes Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic. With Ahmed out for the foreseeable future, general manager Mike Hazen indicated that he’s open to acquiring a shortstop. “I felt like we had a clearer path,” Hazen said. “I do think, as you take on injuries, those things do change a little bit. I think over the next month, we have to be somewhat flexible given what may happen with the major-league team. I do think we have areas, like I’ve said before, that we’re going to at least focus in on to see if there are ways to improve the club.” Piecoro names the Reds’ Zack Cozart, the Tigers’ Jose Iglesias and the Phillies’ Freddy Galvis as potential targets, suggesting that each are likely defensive upgrades over the Diamondbacks’ in-house tandem of Chris Owings and Ketel Marte.

More from the majors’ two West divisions:

  • When Angels left-hander Andrew Heaney underwent Tommy John surgery a year ago, general manager Billy Eppler was unwilling to rule him out for all of 2017. Now, there’s a good chance Heaney will indeed take the hill this season, according to Mike DiGiovanna of the Los Angeles Times. Heaney threw a 90-pitch simulated game Saturday and could embark on a rehab assignment later this month, and manager Mike Scioscia believes the 28-year-old has made “remarkable” progress. “I would say that his rehab has gone as well as you could hope for,” Scioscia said. “For him to throw the ball the way he did this afternoon, on the one-year anniversary of his surgery, is incredible. It’s very promising where he is.”
  • Mike Trout’s return from the disabled list later this month could create a dilemma for the Angels, who might have to decide between fellow outfielders Ben Revere and Eric Young Jr., writes DiGiovanna. Revere is the far pricier player, raking in $4MM to Young’s minimal salary; however, Young has slashed .275/.353/.418 with three home runs and 11 steals in 104 plate appearances to trump Revere’s output (.223/.237/.311, one homer, five steals over 152 PAs).
  • Dodgers first baseman Adrian Gonzalez won’t return until after the All-Star break, per Ken Gurnick of MLB.com and Andy McCullough of the Los Angeles Times (Twitter links). The back troubles Gonzalez has dealt with for years continue to pose a problem, and he still hasn’t resumed baseball activities since going on the DL in the first half of June. “He’s not where he wants to be,” noted manager Dave Roberts.

Latest On Injuries To Adrian Gonzalez, Julio Urias

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Adrian Gonzalez has been dealing with back pain for the better part of half a decade, writes Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register, and the longtime Dodgers first baseman tells Plunkett that if the discomfort doesn’t subside, this could be his final contract.

“[I]f I have to deal with this next year again?” Gonzalez asked rhetorically. “That’ll probably be it. My contract will be over, that’ll probably be it. I won’t play any more. If I can heal it and my body feels good? Now I can go out there and do the things I can do. Then I’ll keep playing.”

Gonzalez has been diagnosed with a herniated disk in his lower back, for which he has received an epidural injection and is on a regimen of anti-inflammatories and physical therapy. Doctors have informed him that surgical repair of the issue would require a process similar to the spinal fusion that Tiger Woods has gone through and would effectively end his career. Gonzalez acknowledges that he hopes to be able to get healthy enough to extend his career by another two to three years after his current deal runs out, but that’s up in the air at the moment. He’s earning $21.5MM in 2017, and his contract calls for the same salary in 2018.

It’ll be another month before Gonzalez is reevaluated, per Plunkett, and there’s no firm timetable on a return to the playing field for the five-time All-Star. The 35-year-old Gonzalez saw his production take a dip in 2016 but still turned in a solid .285/.349/.435 batting line in 633 plate appearances over 156 games. In 2017, however, he hit .255/.304/.339 and appeared in just 49 games (182 PAs) before landing on the shelf with back issues.

The unsettling injury news for Dodgers fans doesn’t stop there, however, as Andy McCullough of the L.A. Times reports that there’s “heightened concern” in the Dodgers organization about the severity of prized young left-hander Julio Urias’ shoulder injury. President of baseball ops Andrew Friedman tells McCullough that the team doesn’t have anything “definitive” to share on Urias, though they hope to have a more substantive update in the near future.

J.P. Hoornstra of the Southern California News Group writes that Urias will return to L.A. this weekend to have his shoulder examined. The 20-year-old hasn’t thrown a baseball since June 10, when he was initially diagnosed with inflammation. He could be headed for multiple opinions on the shoulder and further testing to better get to the root of the problem, writes Hoornstra.

Urias made his big league debut in 2016 as a 19-year-old and pitched like a future ace, tossing 77 innings of 3.39 ERA ball with 9.8 K/9, 3.6 BB/9 and a 43.7 percent ground-ball rate. He’s struggled through 23 1/3 MLB innings this season but still turned in outstanding work in Triple-A: a 2.59 ERA, a 32-to-15 K/BB ratio and a 46.7 percent ground-ball rate in 31 1/3 innings.

Health Notes: Pollock, Smith, E-Rod, Villar, Hughes, Zobrist, AGon, Semien, Werth, Flaherty

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Diamondbacks outfielder A.J. Pollock has suffered a new injury while on a rehab assignment, as Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic tweets. Pollock, who is working back from a groin strain, is now said to be day-to-day with tightness in his right quad. The severity isn’t yet known, though the presence of another lower-body muscle issue will surely cause the organization to proceed with caution. With the Snakes locked in a surprising and increasingly fascinating battle in the NL West, they will be anxious to get Pollock back, though clearly the long view is required for such an important player with such a checkered injury history.

Let’s check in on a few more injury situations from around the game:

  • The Blue Jays placed righty Joe Smith on the 10-day DL before today’s game, per a club announcement. He is dealing with shoulder inflammation. That’s a big loss for a Toronto club that has made huge strides after a woeful start to the year. Smith has been quite effective while maintaining a heavy workload; through 34 appearances, he carries a 3.41 ERA. More impressively, Smith has nearly doubled last year’s strikeout rate (13.4 K/9) while maintaining a 13.0% swinging-strike rate that dwarfs any of his prior single-season marks.
  • While the Red Sox wait to learn more about the status of second baseman Dustin Pedroia, who took a pitch to the ribcage on Sunday, the club has continued to receive good news on lefty Eduardo Rodriguez. As Rob Bradford of WEEI.com tweets, skipper John Farrell says that Rodriguez will face live hitters this week and possibly head out for a rehab assignment thereafter.
  • Things are clearing up for Brewers infielder Jonathan Villar as well, as MLB.com’s Adam McCalvy tweets. Villar, who has struggled in the wake of a breakout 2016 season, says that his lower back is feeling so much better that he might be ready for a rehab stint soon. Milwaukee may well need a healthy and more effective Villar if it hopes to continue to outpace the rest of the NL Central.
  • In other forthcoming rehab stints, Twins righty Phil Hughes is scheduled for a start at Triple-A on Wednesday, as Mike Berardino of the St. Paul Pioneer Press reports. It seems that he has avoided the worst-case scenario after experiencing some symptoms akin to those that led to thoracic outlet surgery. Minnesota is also giving a rehab start to lefty Hector Santiago, who seems likely to avoid a lengthy DL stint for his shoulder issue.
  • Veteran Cubs infielder/outfielder Ben Zobrist got some good news, as Jeff Arnold of the Chicago Sun-Times writes. An MRI came back clean, leaving the club hopeful that the veteran will be able to return as soon as Friday. That said, Zobrist acknowledged that he still needs to test out the wrist at full speed, noting that “we’re not going to push it.”
  • Dodgers skipper Dave Roberts provided an update on first baseman Adrian Gonzalez, as Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times was among those to tweet. The veteran has received an epidural to treat his lower back issues, says Roberts, with the organization hopeful that Gonzalez will be able to return sometime around the All-Star break next month.
  • The Athletics will send shortstop Marcus Semien out on a rehab assignment later this week, Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle tweets. He has been participating in baseball activities to test his surgically repaired wrist, and it seems the progress is sufficient to allow him to take the next step.
  • Meanwhile, the going is somewhat slow for Nationals outfielder Jayson Werth. As Dan Kolko of MASNsport.com tweets, manager Dusty Baker says that the veteran is still not ready for baseball activities. Instead, he’s still focused on taking care of his bruised left foot.
  • The Orioles don’t appear likely to welcome back infielder Ryan Flaherty any time soon, as Dan Connolly of the Baltimore Sun reports on Twitter. His balky shoulder didn’t respond well to an attempt to ramp up a throwing program, so the team will slow things down. Were it not for the injury, Flaherty would likely have represented part of the plan for dealing with the more recent DL placement of J.J. Hardy.

Adrian Gonzalez Placed On DL With Herniated Disc

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6:55pm: The Dodgers issued a clarification on the injury, per Bill Plunkett of the Orange Country Register (Twitter link). An exam by Dr. Robert Watkins did not identify a “degenerative” issue in Gonzalez’s herniated disc. Rather, it’s the same herniation with which he has dealt in the past.

4:18pm: The injury to Gonzalez, as Andy McCullough of the L.A. Times tweets, was described by manager Dave Roberts as a “degenerative” problem with the herniated disc. The Dodgers will give him as much time off as possible, McCullough notes, though there’s still not even a general timeline being placed on his absence.

1:53pm: The Dodgers announced that outfielder Joc Pederson has been activated from the seven-day concussion DL. To clear a roster spot, the team sent first baseman Adrian Gonzalez to the 10-day DL with what the club is calling lower-back discomfort. Both players came into the season slated for regular duties. But while the club is off to a strong start, Pederson and Gonzalez have mostly presented question marks.

For Pederson, attention will now turn to his performance over the next six weeks. He was excellent last year, driving 25 home runs and posting a 129 wRC+, but has faded badly thus far in 2017. Through 123 plate appearances, Pederson is slashing just .200/.309/.314 with a pair of long balls.

Entering the year, Gonzalez had never gone on the DL. But he already had one stint for a lingering elbow issue and will now take a stretch to rest his ailing back. Gonzalez says his back has been “locking up” as he tries to play with a herniated disc, as Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times reported yesterday. He is also hitting a meager .255/.304/.339 through 182 trips to the plate.

Injury Notes: Hill, Ethier, AGon, Bailey, Melancon, Mariners, Kluber, Gray

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Here’s the latest on some notable health situations from around the game:

  • The Dodgers have updates on a number of players. Lefty Rich Hill is going to return as a starter, but if his blister issue recurs then the team will consider moving him into some kind of relief role, manager Dave Roberts tells MLB Network Radio on Sirius XM (Twitter link). The timeline remains a ways off for outfielder Andre Ethier, meanwhile. He’s still not able to run without feeling pain in his back, Andy McCullough of the Los Angeles Times reports, making it seem unlikely he’d be able to return early July. Finally, first baseman Adrian Gonzalez is expected to begin a rehab assignment next week, Alanna Rizzo of Sportsnet LA tweets. He may only require two or three games before returning.
  • On the other side of the city, the Angels are sending righty Andrew Bailey for a visit with Dr. David Altchek, as Pedro Moura of the Los Angeles Times tweets. The reliever “felt something” in his shoulder during a recent throwing session. Shoulder issues have kept him on the DL all year.
  • Further north, the Giants have cause for hope that closer Mark Melancon will require only the brief DL timeline the club had charted when he was taken off the active roster. As Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle reports on Twitter, Melancon is reporting reduced symptoms in his forearm. The righty will test things out by playing catch tomorrow.
  • Continuing up the coast, the Mariners also have a smattering of health updates of note, as Bob Dutton of the Tacoma News Tribune reports. Key young talents James Paxton and Mitch Haniger are moving in the right direction, with the hope still being that they’ll return before the month is out. Reliever Steve Cishek is also close. But Felix Hernandez is going to rest his ailing shoulder a bit more, leaving his timeline somewhat cloudy, and it’s still not clear what to expect from Hisashi Iwakuma.
  • Indians righty Corey Kluber is moving slowly in his rehab, Ryan Lewis of the Akron Beacon Journal reports. Out with lower back issues, Kluber has begun throwing from flat ground but still hasn’t taken the hill. Manager Terry Francona did say that the team is seeing progress, though perhaps the biggest test is yet to come.
  • Rockies staff ace Jon Gray is also taking longer than had been hoped, as Nick Groke of the Denver Post writes. Gray is still in a walking boot while his broken left foot heals, though the hope seems to be he’ll be ready to shed that soon. While Gray has been able to continue throwing, he’ll obviously need to boost his conditioning and ensure his foot is at full health before undertaking at least some kind of rehab assignment.

Dodgers Place Adrian Gonzalez On DL, Activate Joc Pederson

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Dodgers first baseman Adrian Gonzalez is headed to the 10-day DL with ongoing forearm tendinitis, the club has announced, with center fielder Joc Pederson being activated from his own stint. Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times reported earlier that the move was very likely forthcoming.

Remarkably, this represents the first time he has required a DL stint in his 14 MLB seasons. Gonzalez, who’ll turn 35 in a few days, has played in no fewer than 156 games annually ever since he established himself as a regular back in 2006.

While it’s sad to see that outstanding run of durability come to something of an end, Gonzalez was not looking himself in the early stages of the season. The forearm problem, which limited him this spring, has very likely played a role in his .255/.327/.309 batting line through 105 plate appearances. Gonzalez is also suffering through some lower-back problems, Mike DiGiovanna of the Los Angeles Times adds on Twitter.

Manager Dave Roberts had hinted the DL stint was likely in an appearance on MLB Network Radio on Sirius XM (audio link). He had stated previously that the team would need to sit down with the highly respected veteran before making a move. But now that it has been made, the path is cleared for exciting prospect Cody Bellinger to stay on the active roster after his impressive start.

“I had a conversation with Adrian yesterday on our off day,” Roberts said earlier today, “and I think that right now where we’re at, we’re leaning toward putting him on the disabled list.  We haven’t made that decision officially but I think that’s where we’re going to go and give Cody a little runway to play some first base.”

While there’s still quite a bit of uncertainty in how things will play out the rest of the way, there is now clearly a path for Bellinger to stake a permanent claim to a roster position — if not the first base job. (He is also capable of playing all over the outfield.) Through 36 plate appearances, the hyped youngster has slashed .303/.361/.576 with two home runs. While his proclivity to go down on strikes was the biggest question about him as a player, Bellinger has only been retired by strikeout six times thus far — though certainly it’s a minuscule sample at this point.

If Bellinger can stick on the active roster the rest of the way, he’d set himself up to qualify for arbitration as a Super Two player, meaning he could reach eligibility in advance of the 2020 season. Though he’d add an extra year of arb earnings, with boosted salaries the rest of the way, Los Angeles would still control him through at least 2023.

NL West Notes: Gonzalez, Kazmir, Cain/Blach, Vargas, Weaver

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Adrian Gonzalez will return to playing first base for the Dodgers tomorrow before joining Team Mexico for the WBC, as Alana Rizzo of Sportsnet LA tweets. The veteran first baseman has been battling a minor injury described as “tennis elbow,” but it seems that it has improved enough to allow participation in the global tournament.

Here’s more from the rest of the NL West:

  • We already checked in on Dodgers lefty Scott Kazmir, who left his spring outing today with hip tightness. We’ll need to wait for more news, though it seems he won’t head straight for an MRI; instead, as Eric Stephen of SB Nation tweets, Kazmir will be reevaluated tomorrow. The veteran southpaw clearly wasn’t pleased with the health issue, as Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times reports. “The frustration is through the roof right now,” said the veteran southpaw, who bemoaned the need to “manipulate my body just to be able to get through an outing.”
  • While there’s nominally a competition for the Giants’ fifth starter role, primarily featuring Matt Cain and Ty Blach, Andrew Baggarly of the Mercury News writes that it may not be much of a battle. Though manager Bruce Bochy says nothing has been decided, he did intentionally bring Blach on in the middle of an inning in his most recent outing. Per Bochy, it could be that the young southpaw opens the year in the bullpen, functioning as the club’s long man and/or in a setup capacity. (Certainly, utilizing him to piggyback with Cain could make some sense, if there’s roster space. There are loads of competitors for the club’s few open pitching jobs.)
  • There’s little doubt that the Padres are open to multiple possibilities in their rotation. As MLB.com’s AJ Cassavell writes, though, the club has begun to pare down the number of competitors. Righty Cesar Vargas was the first to go; he was sent down to minor-league camp in part to give him enough time on the hill to build back to full strength after dealing with a flexor strain in 2016. Vargas, 25, had turned in six eye-opening starts before the day of his injury, and could certainly still enter the picture at some point during the season to come.
  • One Padres starting job will go to righty Jered Weaver, who Cassavell spoke with about his progress thus far. The 34-year-old says that focusing on flexibility has allowed him to make huge strides in his mechanics, calling it “night-and-day from last year.” He’s hoping the change will make him looser and allow better extension, while also preventing the neck and shoulder issues that plagued him previously.

NL West Notes: Gonzalez, Hill, Arroyo, Morse, Hwang, Stewart

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Dodgers first baseman Adrian Gonzalez is dealing with what he has described as a case of tennis elbow, as Andy McCullough of the Los Angeles Times reports. The veteran says that he suffered the malady due to an active offseason workout program. While he’s set to be shut down for about two weeks, Gonzalez says he expects to be back to full strength after some rest. Chase Utley is expected to see some time in camp at first, McCullough notes, as the team prepares in the event that Gonzalez does end up missing some time early.

Here’s more from the NL West:

  • The Giants may have the game’s most interesting aggregation of veterans competing for limited bench roles in camp, as Andrew Baggarly of the Mercury News writes. “No promises, no guarantees,” GM Bobby Evans said of the signing of Aaron Hill. “Just creating competition. We’ll see how it plays out.” If there is a drawback to the large number of competitors, it’s probably the lack of reps available to young players — particularly top prospect Christian Arroyo. However, as Alex Pavlovic of CSN Bay Area writes, GM Bobby Evans says that the organization already feels confident that Arroyo is capable of handling the bat at the major league level, suggesting that the club doesn’t need a long look this spring to determine his timeline.
  • As Baggarly notes, the right-handed-hitting Hill is competing to some extent not only with the array of infielders, but also players such as Michael Morse for a role as a righty bench bat. Morse returned to San Francisco after unexpectedly hammering out a deal at Hunter Pence’s wedding — an interesting story that also comes via Baggarly. Perhaps the single most intriguing player in camp, though, is Korean infielder Jae-gyun Hwang. As Baggarly also writes, agent Han Lee says that the KBO star is committed to pitting himself against MLB pitching. “A lot of people assume if he doesn’t make it, he’s just going to run back to Korea, but that’s not his mentality,” says Lee. “I’ve told him it’s very much possible he could start at Sacramento, and if that’s the case, he’ll just have to work his way up.”
  • Former Diamondbacks GM Dave Stewart discussed his tenure in a recent appearance on MLB Network Radio on Sirius XM (audio link). Stewart expressed disappointment with the fact that he wasn’t given a longer leash in Arizona, suggesting he hadn’t received a “true opportunity to do the job.” That said, he acknowledged the error behind one of the moves that perhaps helped spell the end of his time in Arizona — the infamous deal that sent Dansby Swanson, Ender Inciarte, and Aaron Blair to the Braves for Shelby Miller. “My gut that whole time said that I should not move Dansby Swanson,” he said, though he stressed that he still believes in Miller. “If anything, maybe substituting [him] with another player” would have been something he would like to “have a redo” on, said Stewart.
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